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LHS coaching legend Bossi soon to be a film star

By David Pevear, dpevear@lowellsun.com

Updated:
04/26/2013 03:25:58 PM EDT

Lowell High wrestling coach and Hall of Famer George Bossi, shown demonstrating a move on then-senior Connor McHugh in 2011, is amused that the Lowell High Wrestling Alumni group has commissioned a documentary about his legendary coaching career, which enters its 50th year at LHS next winter. "Evidently, from what I understand, I was quite a character back then," he says. SUN FILE PHOTO

LOWELL -- That voice that for five decades has launched Lowell High wrestling champions still booms like a force from on high that better be obeyed.

And now it's being recorded.

In preparation for George Bossi's 50th wrestling season at Lowell High next winter, the Lowell High Wrestling Alumni group is raising money to fund a documentary about their coach, being shot by Hudson, N.H., filmmaker Tim O'Donnell.

Bossi, 77, is the only member of the Lowell High Athletic Hall of Fame who did not attend Lowell High. He grew up in Randolph, attended parochial school in Dorchester, graduated from Milton High and graduated from Springfield College in 1959. Yet the name Bossi is as unmistakably Lowell as Riddick, Kerouac and Ward.

George Bossi makes a point during a 2011 practice. (SUN FILE PHOTO/Julia Malakie)

He has coached Lowell High teams to 11 state championships and four New England titles.

What he sounds most proud of, though, is that his team did not miss a single day of practice following the Blizzard of '78.

Q: I would think a documentary about George Bossi has great Oscar potential. Am I right?

A: If it was shot in my heyday in the '60s and '70s, I'd say an excellent chance (laugh). But I don't know if they can put that on film. I've adapted with the times. The documentary took me by surprise. Evidently, from what I understand, I was quite a character back then.

Q: Were you influenced by other coaches? Or is what we see pure George Bossi?

A: If it wasn't for Doug Parker, my wrestling coach at Springfield College, I probably would be a football coach.

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I was more of a football guy when I went to Springfield. I played linebacker. I got dinged in the head five or six times. Parker became my mentor, the guy who got me to enjoy the sport of wrestling. He is 85 years old and still kicking.

Q: I understand Bossi, the football guy, was a graduate assistant at the University of Illinois under coach Ray Eliot when a quarterback named Jesse Jackson arrived there in 1959. Could you see in Jackson a future civil-rights leader?

A: You could see he was going to be a good preacher. He was very vocal, very charismatic. He left after one season and transferred to North Carolina A&T. But you could see he had cha-risma and leadership abilities.

Q: Is it true you had a hand in recruiting the great Dick Butkus to Illinois?

A: He came in after I left, but I helped recruit him. I saw him play in high school at Chicago Vocational. He was beating everybody up. He was a no-brainer. Probably the greatest linebacker ever. It was a big deal he stayed at home, stayed at Illinois. I like that. If all the kids from Massachusetts did that, UMass would be in the Big Ten.

Q: Butkus was certainly quite a catch. You live on Plum Island and love to saltwater-fish. What's your favorite fish story?

A: I used to fish at night back in the 1960s. One night I got three bass, which averaged about 50 pounds. I had fished all night and didn't have time to bring them to sell before school. I was living in Chelmsford and had to go right to (Lowell High, where Bossi was a physical-education teacher). So I kept the shower in the locker room going cold on the fish. About seven o'clock, before school started, the wholesaler came up to the back of the school. I sold the fish on the spot on Father Morissette Boulevard. Probably made $1 a pound. Then made sure there were no scales left on the shower floor.

Q: Even in a sport in which "demanding" is the routine, you stand out as a demanding coach. Are kids today as responsive to those demands? Are they as tough as they used to be?

A: The athletes are just as good, if not better. As far as toughness, times have changed. You have to draw that toughness out. I think they could be just as tough. But a lot of kids get the support they need only from their teammates and coaches. Some kids in Lowell need more parental support. The athletes are certainly there. Remember, we have 4,000 kids in the school. We'll turn things around.

Q: Any thoughts on the best wrestler and best team you have coached?

A: Maybe the best wrestler was George Kacavas (who was an undefeated New England champ in 1974 and '75). He has also given back a lot on the youth level and is one of the best wrestling officials around. The 1987 team that won the state and New Englands was probably the best team.

Q: In February, North Andover's Danielle Coughlin won the Division 2 wrestling title at 106 pounds. She became the first girl to win a Massachusetts state wrestling title. Did you think you would ever see that day?

A: No, I never did. But this girl is exceptional. She has an older brother who was a state champion. She was a very savvy wrestler. She was a co-captain who really contributed to that team. She came through big-time.

Q: I assume you're upset that wrestling will be eliminated from the Olympics after the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. If you were in a room with members of the International Olympic Committee's executive board, what would you say to them?

A: That you don't understand the value of the sport unless you've done it. As a participant, wrestling teaches lessons that are invaluable. It teaches strengths and weaknesses and limitations, more so than any other sport we have. It's not really a spectator sport -- though it is in the Midwest, where people live the sport, and in New Jersey. The committee is looking at dollar signs. Wrestling doesn't sell like basketball or hockey or synchronized swimming. But I thought the decision was ridiculous.

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